Beef Wellington

Hi again folks,
 
Checking in with another small (and I mean small) update   While it may appear not much is being done, you are right - as far as the model goes not much has been done.  however, in the background a lot has been done.  
 
Most of my time has been doing the drawings for the Photo Etch parts (which should be completed this week).  These include the chain plates, rigmaiden lanyards, deck winches, some fine gratings for skylights etc.
 
I have also been busy with research getting ready to draw the plans for the spars, rigging and sails.  Ed Tosti has been a great assistance in that YA has many common features and he has been most helpful.  I have also been into our Public Records Office and made a great find - the actual 'Rigging Warrant' for the ship which lets me know what where wire rope, chain or natural (hemp) rope was used (sizes and lengths), where shackles and thimbles were used, the number and sizes of blocks, where rigging screws were used and also what lines etc were used with which spar etc.  For example I now know the gammoning was chain and not rope etc.
 
The research also uncovered that there were several drawings/plans (Profile, deck arrangement, midship section, sail plan, engines, boilers, 27ft gig etc) sent back, but unfortunately these may not have been kept - the search goes on however .
 
I have also made some updates to the Downton pumps, managing to make the pump spigot smaller; this is where the 'gutta-purchase' (indian rubber) hoses would have connected.  The updated ones are shown compared with the larger spigot version I had made - old one to the left obviously .  The newer versions reflect the pump body shape better and shown with temporary handle axle/spindle; but I had to replace the spigot on one as the close up showed I had filed at a very oblique angle.  One small detail loss in making the spigots smaller was that I could not add the squared lug on top of the upper spigot cap.  The second photo shows the pumps primed ready for their white topcoat.  This has been done, along with the wood base, but no photos yet.


cheers
 
Pat
 
 

Well my last update to this log seems to have been in September! Then, of course, work took over and I've had precious little time for any modelling until the Christmas break....over the last couple of weeks I've finally found some time to return to both my current builds - Syren and Bluenose. Most of this work has been re-do & repair work....
 
Syren has seen the sweep ports repositioned (I incorrectly marked them from the templates provided with the kit and so ended up planking over them and drilling them out in the correct spots....). I also planked the counter, but noticed that I made an error in the lower planks that abut the sternpost....so I'll have to re-do these eventually....ah well.
 
As for Bluenose, my last post documented the planking of the forward bulwarks and the cutting out of the scuppers forward. This went pretty smoothly with the help of the table saw. The quarterdeck bulwarks & scuppers were another story, though....the problem was with the fact that the quarterdeck bulwark planking did not come level with the waterways at all points. This meant that I had to file scuppers out of the bottom of the first bulwark plank at the forward end of the quarterdeck and out of the top of the upper-most hull plank aft....but because I did not do this as accurately or carefully as I could, there ended up being a small "step" in the scuppers at about the mid-point of the quartedeck bulwarks. Port and Starboard were roughly the same....
 
After looking at this for a couple of months, I decided I could not live with it and ripped the aft planking off. Laying a 3/32" x 1/16 planking strip along the hull , I marked the upper edge of the waterway along its length inboard and thus got a sense of where the scuppers should be positioned. Some of the scuppers can be fully filed out of the bottom of this first bulwark plank. The rest are only lightly scored and finished on the next bulwark plank up. At present I've managed to install the lower bulwark plank on the port side and it looks good - already I can see that it will be much better than my first attempt. I'm hoping to finish this work before the new semester starts (next Monday) and I get swamped with work again until the Spring....I'll post some photos once it's complete. 
 
Hope you all have a wonderful New Year and best for 2019!
hamilton

So I've completed the bulwarks. They went reasonably well. One issue was that the height of the top of the waterways did not exactly match up with the bottom of the second 3/32" x 1/16" bulwark strake. At points, then, it seemed that the scuppers would have to be filed into the top of the first strake and the bottom of the second one at different points. I could, I suppose, have simple planked the transom and then drilled the scuppers out by hand - a tedious job, but one that would have resulted in more even scuppers. As it is, I went for the easier solution - the result is that on both the port and starboard side, there is a little step in the scuppers of the quartedeck about half way along. It's not totally unsightly, but it may prove to be annoying enough that I'll remove the bulwark planking and redo it, this time drilling the scuppers out (though with this technique they won't be the right shape....arghh!!)
 
Anyway, here are some photos. Apart from the issue with the scuppers, it's pretty rough looking at the moment. I'll spend a couple of days thinking about the bulwarks and cleaning them up a bit and then seeing how I feel about them overall before I decide whether to move on or redo them....bye for now.
hamilton

Another long overdue update. I have done a good bit of work over the last few months, but again have been bad with the documentation.
 
Anyway...Standing rigging is complete. Again, obviously I did a ton of work with no updates. That was no mere few days of effort. 
 
I've also gotten the boom and gaff rigged. Line is from a variety of sources and all of the blocks are from Syren. Finally the launch was installed and secured in place. 

Cannons looking great OC!  Are you doing hauling tackles?  Must be pretty tiny at 1:72.

Cannons looking great OC!  Are you doing hauling tackles?  Must be pretty tiny at 1:72.

Post 58
Boom Crutches.
Interesting little project to make these and I am grateful to Chuck's guide on the subject.
I  originally started with a 12mm wide strip cut from some 1/4" Boxwood sheet. but I found that I ran out of angle to give me sufficient height.
For my subsequent attempts I used 15 x 20mm section- and there were several futile attempts to get something that looked even barely acceptable.
The block is secured on the transom with a strip of double sided tape to mark the fashion piece angles, and the process of filing and sanding begins.

5101
These crutches are quite small and awkward little things to hold and shape so I reach the point where I think it better to glue them to the transom and finish off shaping with both hands available.

5110
Using a jury rig to assist with the rotation of the crutch.
Chuck makes the point that it should turn somewhat inwards to receive the boom.

5144
Even so a couple were glued on only to be ripped off when I found the opposing one looked better, and so it went on.
A couple of the sad little rejects lie on the deck.

5139
Eventually I convinced myself that the resulting pair didn't look too bad a match and I resolved to permanently fix them.

5153
They seem very vulnerable sitting up there atop the rail so I added a bolt thro' the crutch and into the transom.

5154
In this shot the completed Transom knees can also be seen.
I pondered a little over the colour scheme for the knees but eventually decided on red as they were below the level of the rail, and to my eye looked less heavy than black.
The retaining bolt heads  can also be seen; I did wonder whether to include these, but I felt they should be there, and they do seem be shown on Chuck's plan.

5170

5172
The Fashion pieces were also painted black at this point.

5166
The internal lead discharge piping for the Seats of ease was added. Totally unnecessary of course and will probably never see the light of day again, but I know they are there.

5161
The circular outlet flanges were represented by flattened slices of Aluminium tubing, chemically blackened.

5168

5152
So where to next, I think I will tackle the Timberheads, and make a few cleats but I also need to consider whether to fit Swivel posts.
 
I have been having second thoughts about this. Neither of the historical models of either Cheerful or Surly are fitted with swivels and all the cutter examples I have seen with swivels date from the mid to late 18th Century and of course Cheerful is an early 19th century cutter.
However, Lavery (Arming and Fitting) does indicate their use on naval ships until 1815, and I can imagine that a couple of swivels in the stern and bow areas would prove useful.
One of the fascinating aspects of our subjects is that there are always more questions than answers.
 
B.E.
04/01/2019
 

Post 56
Inboard Fittings
With the deck laid there are areas requiring re-touching, and the treenails to be added.
I pondered a little about doing the treenails, as I don't think Chuck added them. In the end I decided to add them.
I mixed a fresh batch of filler tinted with a paler tone to fill the around 600 0.6mm holes.

4893
The deck is then re-scraped for a final time before sealing. I use 'Admiralty' brand Flat Matt Varnish. A water based varnish which I don't particularly like, but it does give an unvarnished look to the deck whilst at the same time sealing it.

4897
The treenails are barely visible, which is the effect I was after.

4899
With completion of the deck it's all about fittings from this point on.
Windlass
This is the most prominent and interesting deck fitting on Cheerful, and I am using Chuck's beautifully thought out mini-kit for the purpose.

4865
I have decided to leave the barrel of the windlass natural but paint the standards red.
Associated with the windlass is the Bowsprit Step and pawls Bitt; these are assembled next. Again I have used a Chuck mini kit; it fits together with very little adjustment and very nice it is too.

4862

4863
Not completed at this point, these two items along with the Bowsprit will be considered together a little later in the build.
Elm Tree Pumps
Once again I avail myself of Chuck's little mini kit.
The provided square stock for the body does need converting into the traditional octagonal shape, and for this I bring a little 'V' jig into use, last used on my Pegasus build.

4944
The body parts are only 20mm long so it helps to have a method of securing them whilst the octagons are formed.

4952
A busy day in the workshop, and Cheerful has to make way on the bench.
The body does need drilling out and the centres were marked prior to shaping.

4948
The hollow centres were drilled out on my mill using a 3mm bit.
A little bit of fettlin' of pump handle and brackets and they're ready to assemble.

4970
For the iron bands around the body I use slices of heat shrink tubing, a thing I favour for this type of feature.

4966
Undecided as yet whether to leave the Brake handles and discharge pipes natural.
 
There is still the Winch to do but Shock, horror, 😲 I find there is no comforting little mini kit from Chuck which means I must shake myself out of complacency and do a bit of scratching.
So this seems to be a good point to end the posts for 2018 and thank all my fellow builders for their interest, support, and help over the past twelve months.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from me and my stalwart Shipyard Assistant, William.
 
B.E
21/12/2018
 
 

Kind words, thank you Wallace and Martin. 🙂
Post 54
A question lavatorial
I now turn my attention to the stern area to fit the platform containing the 'seats of ease'
Chuck has used 1/32" sheet to form the construction parts, as have I.

4857
A trial and error (mostly error) job this with multiple tweaks to get it anywhere near right.

4876
Fitting these surely does mess up the paintwork at the stern, re-finishing will be required.

4877
Chuck has included two 'seats of ease'  at the stern of Cheerful; seems quite generous considering that a first rate only had six for the whole crew, excluding officers.
I had wondered about the prominent position of these  'facilities' at the stern as modelled, but these items as shown on the Upper deck plan of Cheerful, appear to be 'seats of ease'

Upper deck of Cheerful.
 
The holes on the model plan initially looked quite large to my eye, but they are only  a scale 7.5" diameter. As for position on the platform I requested the Commander to check that their location provided a practical seating position.

4879
He seems quite at ease.
Apparently in naval circles  it was considered  good manners to use the Lee side seat of easement if at all possible.
Anyway I digress,
I wonder if in reality  these small platforms would have been planked rather than solid sheet?
I also wonder if in practice they would really have been painted, presumably being scrubbed down and also used for access to the Taffrail, or a height advantage point on the cutter.
All speculation of course , but examples of cutters I have seen with small aft platforms all were planked and in some cases used to mount Stern chasers.

4888
Purely for my own amusement I planked over the card template I used to make the platform using thin boxwood strip, to see what it looked like before I committed to the real thing.
Once again obsessing over minutiae, to paint or not to paint, to plank or not to plank, one hole or two.
There is such scant information on the subject, particularly for small vessels.
 
B.E.
15/12/2018
 

Thanks Thomas🙂
 
Post 53
Completing the decking.
The last four strakes include hooded planks where otherwise the planks would taper too narrowly.
I rather enjoy making hooded planks and they make for an interesting feature, a change from the more familiar 'joggled' arrangement.
7/32" and 9/32" wide strips were used to form the hoods, a fairly painless process.
The final strakes against the margin plank also require 9/32" strips.
To form these I use a Tamiya tape pattern to form a template to produce these final planks.

4807
The final plank marked for spiling.

4826
Completion!
A process of scraping the decks now ensues, I don't sand decks. I will use Admiralty Flat Matt Varnish to seal the surface.
Some photo's to record the twelve month point of this build so far.

4838

4832

4837

4836
The eagle eyed will notice that I have cut out holes in the Main hatch grating to allow passage of the anchor cables.

4834
This marks  completion of this major milestone in the build.
Fitting the rudder beckons....
 
B.E.
07/12/2018
 

Post 52
 Decking continues.
With a little help from my friends 👍 issues with getting the curve right for the bandings are resolved and I can move on.
The way my centre line planks worked out there is a requirement for  a wider plank with tabs and cut outs immediately adjacent either side.

4724
These were tricky to form as there are double tabs and cut outs on each of the two planks that form the run. A two plank run falls within the overall acceptable scale lengths and avoids a butt joint at an inconvenient point.

4759
These planks were formed first without any consideration of tapering or bending.

4771
The inner band of planking now defined by an adjusted and less acute tape line, and the individual plank lines re-marked.

4776
The two plank lines adjacent to the centre section are now glued into place and braced during the gluing process.
The next thing to work out is the shift pattern.
On British ships  a three or four plank spacing is usual between any butts across a single beam
On the Cheerful plan a four butt shift is shown.
I couldn't follow the deck plan layout exactly as I opted to use just two planks for the run immediately outside the centre planks, with the first butt just aft of the main hatch.

4781LI
 I tweaked the plan arrangement to take into account the butt joint of these first planks.
Using a photo of the model I take the precaution of marking these out on the plan before I start.
Planking of the inner belt then becomes simply a matter of length and taper matched to the tick marks laid out on the false deck.
For caulking I use a Pilot broad chisel point waterproof marker which dries instantly and doesn't run. This is applied to one plank edge only.

4786

4789

4791
The inner belt completed, minimal cleaning up at this stage as I prefer to wait until the deck is completed.
Moving onto the outer belt with its four strakes and interesting hooded planks.
 
B.E.
05/12/2018

Post 51
 Getting down to decking.
I have glued into place the side tackle eyebolts for the guns, and ensured the ring bolts will slide easily into their holes later on.
The deck beam positions have been marked on the false deck and the centre line fittings glued into place.
I spent a fair amount of time staring at the deck plan and noting  the  reference details. It has been over seven years since I last planked a deck, one year into my previous Pegasus build, and I'm feeling somewhat ring rusty.
The long planks outside of those between the centre line fittings range between 32 - 35' scale feet, and there is a four shift butt pattern.( 3 plank widths between butts across a beam.)
The provided plan shows a joggled layout but Chuck has opted for a  curved plank arrangement with hooded planks. I last used this arrangement on the Fo'csle deck of Pegasus, but they were much shorter lengths and far fewer in number.
The process starts with the centre line planks and the narrative indicates that the first is placed right down the centre of the deck. The plan shows the centre two planks joining along the centre line.

4730
I played around with both arrangements to see which provided the better outcome when I came to fitting the adjacent full length planks either side.

4734
 I eventually settled on the 'Chuck' arrangement but either way I would need to cut wider planks for the outside run to avoid  slivers of planking alongside the centre line fittings.
 
The section around the Bread room scuttle at the stern required cutting from some 3/64" x 9/32" strip.

4725
Tricky little patterns to cut but they do make for an interesting layout.

4727
With the planks in place the scuttle was sanded flush with the deck.

4731

4728
So another milestone reached which is also twelve months from the start of the build.
I now need to do some working out of the remaining deck layout before I move on to complete the planking.
 
B.E.
29/11/2018

Happy New Year to everyone,     I managed to get on the pearl  today and continue with the canons,  same procedure as before  trapping the breach ropes then gluing then inplace - firstly I glued into the place the next two that had been painted and weathered, then I worked on the next six  prior to painting.
 
Oh an interesting thing though  - my brother tells me he has has a little model prezzy for me coming my way soon, "Im intrigued"
 
OC.

I must be on a roll  - more work on the pearl today  after our walk with the pooch,  so  - carrying on with the rest of the canons,  carrying on with same procedure I now present to you the canon-ised pearl.
 
OC.

Good day all  -  Happy Holidays to all,
 
First day back on the pearl in what feels like ages, any way  I decided to carry on working from the inside - out,  this ment  working on the canons starting by assembling the canon/carriages, then I fixed the breach ropes and working on two at a time  - I applied a few coats of paint then weathered them,  I also fitted a thin strip of wood under the carriage to aid gluing them down to the deck.
I used the same trick as the previous canons - I drilled  two fine holes through the bulkhead to take the breach ropes.
 
So two have been placed and glued down,  when they are fixed I will place the breach ropes with the right amount of sag - then glue them through the holes.
 
Just two pics folks.

Peter Goodwin sheds some light in his paper ‘The Application and Scheme of Paintworks in British Men-of-War in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries’ he says:
 
“Concerning the yellow currently used for the ship’s sides and other applications in the Victory, a letter dated 6 December 1805 from William Marsden, Secretary of the Navy Board, states that Commissioner Middleton, ‘submitted a proposal from Lord Nelson that the private ships in the fleet are painted three times a year and the flagships four times a year. The proportion of white paint to yellow is to be 6 lbs to 1 lb’.14 In short Nelson authorised a six-to-one mix of white and yellow, which would be so light as to verge on the colour cream.

The Victory in my time received many enquiries from enthusiasts and model makers concerning paint colours. There was particular interest in the exact shade of ‘yellow’ for the ship’s side and external works, and many thought that the current ‘ship’s side buff’ was ‘too orange’. It is understood that the decor experts at the Victoria and Albert Museum advised on the correct shade of yellow ochre some 35 years ago, though the exact shade may have ‘evolved’ since then.15 It has been noted that the current paint shade is remarkably similar to that used on the superstructures of Admiralty tugs and ancillary dockyard craft. 
 
Following the information disclosed in William Marsden’s letter, experiments in collaboration with the marine artist Gordon Frickers were undertaken to determine the resultant colour from a six-to-one mix in oils, employing different base tints of yellow ochre oil paint. The results confirmed suspicions that ‘ship’s side buff’ is too orange, and he has since applied this more accurate pale yellow to a new work entitled ‘Nelson at Gibraltar’.”
 
Like a lot of the 1920’s restoration pre-conception ruled the thinking despite evidence to the contrary (you see the same with the Trincomalee restoration). Someone probably said ‘they used yellow ochre’ without thinking about shade and we end up with the deepest yellow! If you look at contemporary artists like Constable and Tuner who saw the ship you get a pale yellow / almost cream. If you look at artists like Pocock he seemed to paint from the 1765 model so you get something entirely different and wholly wrong for 1805. Interestingly Turner took a lot of stick for his Trafalgar painting (waterline wrong, ships positions wrong, wrong time of day, etc.) a lot of which was from naval officers, but no one ever said you got the colour wrong.
 
It is also worth looking at Gordon Frickers work that Peter Goodwin mentions, his experimentation shows something between the yellow we all grew up with and the paler Turner / Constable colours, but again this is just hypothesis.
 
Gary
 
 

Happy New year to everyone!  First off my apologies for not being on the site as much as usual and checking in on everyone's progress, something I hope to rectify soon. 
 
My progress has been limited, some small steps have been taken, and problems encountered that stopped me in my tracks for a while.
 
Channel Brackets:
The kit supplies PE channel support brackets, unfortunately I found this unworkable as is as the profile impinged on the decorative molding, they're also a little wider than indicated on the plan.  The PE parts are scored pretty heavily at the bending points so trying to tweak these was not really an option.  The problem also identified by others is that there are not enough provided in the kit (per the AOTS there are 3 shown on the mizzen, 6 for main and 4 for the fore channel) and only 11 provided, so the kit is 2 short.  Further analysis suggests its likely 3 short as there are 2 brackets used between ports, and it appears that one is simply hidden behind the stock of the anchor on page 69.  I'm going to reflect 5 brackets on the fore channel.  Another slight complication is that the mizzen brackets need to be smaller to account for the lower position of the channel in the open rail configuration I'm following.  Basically I needed to make my own, and without any really good photos to follow went with my gut.
 

 
Not having any other suitable materials handy, my eye turned to one of the spare sets of PE from other CC kits I had purchased a while back.  Not sure which kit, but a little filing and cutting to length allowed the chains to be workable.  These also appear to be almost exactly the same narrower width as shown in the AOTS profiles.  The center portion of the Diana PE part was re-purposed to attach to the channel.  Exactly the same approach was taken for the mizzen, except that the top of the Diana PE part was used and different dimensions for the bracket supporter.  This was all rather fiddly and took rather longer than I'd care to admit... 🙂
 

 

 
Cannons....finally:
Once the channel supporters were in place I could then proceed with installation of the cannons.  These are now glued in place (using CA), I didn't pin these in place as this would have been a little problematic at this stage, and they seem quite secure as is.  Breeching ropes were attached off the ship prior to installation.  Another self imposed delay was decision to go with 'light brown' Syren line rather than the 'tan' used previously - this seems to have a tone that blends better with the colour palette.  The Syren line is very nice to work with and the usual trick of using dilute PVA was used to fine tune the final profile.  For these more obscured cannons, I used a simple eyebolt to secure the breach rope, for the more visible ones in the waist, I want to explore using ringbolt as per practice, but even using a simple eyebolt gives a satisfactory result to my eye at this scale.
 

 
And finally, the exterior shot...in retrospect I'm happy with the decision to install the channels and brackets first as I'm pretty sure there would have been collateral damage to cannons during installation.  5 down, 23 to go.

@Pat - I tried using a very fine sanding stick after coat of primer had been sprayed on.  This worked in some cases, but less so in others, and not at all in all those hard to reach corners.  I've never seen many samples of 3D printing to compare to so I may be being a little unfair, and of course it comes down to the materials supplied.  I ordered the "Smoothest Fine Detail' option which was the 'best' finish of those available.  Its odd as one side is almost perfect, the other much rougher...https://www.shapeways.com/product/9VPR7D8CW/1-64-lower-capstan-18th-and-19th-century?optionId=64749325.  I suspect other materials offered by other suppliers could give better results.
 
Taking stock:
 
Not too much time in the shipyard this weekend, trying to get the garden ready for winter.  The shipyard did however get a bit of a spring cleaning as I was getting a little bit tired of working in a 2"x2" square on my cutting mat despite working on a pretty large table.  A few overall shots of where things stand as its been a while.  Now the channels are glued, the chainplate locations could be drilled as well as the emergency rigging eyebolt positions.  The scuppers have also been completed.  The positioning of all of these things requires quite a bit of planning and luckily I didn't encounter any problems with the airing ports.  (I seem to recall leaving off the foremost one because it is very tightly positioned between preventer links and would have been impossible to locate correctly and likely resulted in a necessary compromise with the chain alignments. 
 
Nearly all the parts for the upper gun deck have been completed an I'm still following the mantra of not gluing something into place until it absolutely needs to progress.
 

 
Syren rope will be used, and I would welcome peoples' opinions on which size to use for the breech rope.  Picked two sizes that seemed most appropriate, left is 0.025"/0.63mm, the right is 0.35"/0.88mm.  Even though I'm sure it exists, I can't find info on what regulation would be - and even if I did, the carriages and barrels are best efforts at matching scale and undoubtedly not spot on, so the right "look" is probably more important.  Upon consideration, I think I'm leaning toward the smaller size, but again would appreciate input...
 

 

Happy New year to everyone!  First off my apologies for not being on the site as much as usual and checking in on everyone's progress, something I hope to rectify soon. 
 
My progress has been limited, some small steps have been taken, and problems encountered that stopped me in my tracks for a while.
 
Channel Brackets:
The kit supplies PE channel support brackets, unfortunately I found this unworkable as is as the profile impinged on the decorative molding, they're also a little wider than indicated on the plan.  The PE parts are scored pretty heavily at the bending points so trying to tweak these was not really an option.  The problem also identified by others is that there are not enough provided in the kit (per the AOTS there are 3 shown on the mizzen, 6 for main and 4 for the fore channel) and only 11 provided, so the kit is 2 short.  Further analysis suggests its likely 3 short as there are 2 brackets used between ports, and it appears that one is simply hidden behind the stock of the anchor on page 69.  I'm going to reflect 5 brackets on the fore channel.  Another slight complication is that the mizzen brackets need to be smaller to account for the lower position of the channel in the open rail configuration I'm following.  Basically I needed to make my own, and without any really good photos to follow went with my gut.
 

 
Not having any other suitable materials handy, my eye turned to one of the spare sets of PE from other CC kits I had purchased a while back.  Not sure which kit, but a little filing and cutting to length allowed the chains to be workable.  These also appear to be almost exactly the same narrower width as shown in the AOTS profiles.  The center portion of the Diana PE part was re-purposed to attach to the channel.  Exactly the same approach was taken for the mizzen, except that the top of the Diana PE part was used and different dimensions for the bracket supporter.  This was all rather fiddly and took rather longer than I'd care to admit... 🙂
 

 

 
Cannons....finally:
Once the channel supporters were in place I could then proceed with installation of the cannons.  These are now glued in place (using CA), I didn't pin these in place as this would have been a little problematic at this stage, and they seem quite secure as is.  Breeching ropes were attached off the ship prior to installation.  Another self imposed delay was decision to go with 'light brown' Syren line rather than the 'tan' used previously - this seems to have a tone that blends better with the colour palette.  The Syren line is very nice to work with and the usual trick of using dilute PVA was used to fine tune the final profile.  For these more obscured cannons, I used a simple eyebolt to secure the breach rope, for the more visible ones in the waist, I want to explore using ringbolt as per practice, but even using a simple eyebolt gives a satisfactory result to my eye at this scale.
 

 
And finally, the exterior shot...in retrospect I'm happy with the decision to install the channels and brackets first as I'm pretty sure there would have been collateral damage to cannons during installation.  5 down, 23 to go.

Happy New year to everyone!  First off my apologies for not being on the site as much as usual and checking in on everyone's progress, something I hope to rectify soon. 
 
My progress has been limited, some small steps have been taken, and problems encountered that stopped me in my tracks for a while.
 
Channel Brackets:
The kit supplies PE channel support brackets, unfortunately I found this unworkable as is as the profile impinged on the decorative molding, they're also a little wider than indicated on the plan.  The PE parts are scored pretty heavily at the bending points so trying to tweak these was not really an option.  The problem also identified by others is that there are not enough provided in the kit (per the AOTS there are 3 shown on the mizzen, 6 for main and 4 for the fore channel) and only 11 provided, so the kit is 2 short.  Further analysis suggests its likely 3 short as there are 2 brackets used between ports, and it appears that one is simply hidden behind the stock of the anchor on page 69.  I'm going to reflect 5 brackets on the fore channel.  Another slight complication is that the mizzen brackets need to be smaller to account for the lower position of the channel in the open rail configuration I'm following.  Basically I needed to make my own, and without any really good photos to follow went with my gut.
 

 
Not having any other suitable materials handy, my eye turned to one of the spare sets of PE from other CC kits I had purchased a while back.  Not sure which kit, but a little filing and cutting to length allowed the chains to be workable.  These also appear to be almost exactly the same narrower width as shown in the AOTS profiles.  The center portion of the Diana PE part was re-purposed to attach to the channel.  Exactly the same approach was taken for the mizzen, except that the top of the Diana PE part was used and different dimensions for the bracket supporter.  This was all rather fiddly and took rather longer than I'd care to admit... 🙂
 

 

 
Cannons....finally:
Once the channel supporters were in place I could then proceed with installation of the cannons.  These are now glued in place (using CA), I didn't pin these in place as this would have been a little problematic at this stage, and they seem quite secure as is.  Breeching ropes were attached off the ship prior to installation.  Another self imposed delay was decision to go with 'light brown' Syren line rather than the 'tan' used previously - this seems to have a tone that blends better with the colour palette.  The Syren line is very nice to work with and the usual trick of using dilute PVA was used to fine tune the final profile.  For these more obscured cannons, I used a simple eyebolt to secure the breach rope, for the more visible ones in the waist, I want to explore using ringbolt as per practice, but even using a simple eyebolt gives a satisfactory result to my eye at this scale.
 

 
And finally, the exterior shot...in retrospect I'm happy with the decision to install the channels and brackets first as I'm pretty sure there would have been collateral damage to cannons during installation.  5 down, 23 to go.

Beautiful work Simon, fantastic work with the CNC machine, I have no idea how you do it but the results speak for themselves.  Just amazing, well done indeed!

Happy New year to everyone!  First off my apologies for not being on the site as much as usual and checking in on everyone's progress, something I hope to rectify soon. 
 
My progress has been limited, some small steps have been taken, and problems encountered that stopped me in my tracks for a while.
 
Channel Brackets:
The kit supplies PE channel support brackets, unfortunately I found this unworkable as is as the profile impinged on the decorative molding, they're also a little wider than indicated on the plan.  The PE parts are scored pretty heavily at the bending points so trying to tweak these was not really an option.  The problem also identified by others is that there are not enough provided in the kit (per the AOTS there are 3 shown on the mizzen, 6 for main and 4 for the fore channel) and only 11 provided, so the kit is 2 short.  Further analysis suggests its likely 3 short as there are 2 brackets used between ports, and it appears that one is simply hidden behind the stock of the anchor on page 69.  I'm going to reflect 5 brackets on the fore channel.  Another slight complication is that the mizzen brackets need to be smaller to account for the lower position of the channel in the open rail configuration I'm following.  Basically I needed to make my own, and without any really good photos to follow went with my gut.
 

 
Not having any other suitable materials handy, my eye turned to one of the spare sets of PE from other CC kits I had purchased a while back.  Not sure which kit, but a little filing and cutting to length allowed the chains to be workable.  These also appear to be almost exactly the same narrower width as shown in the AOTS profiles.  The center portion of the Diana PE part was re-purposed to attach to the channel.  Exactly the same approach was taken for the mizzen, except that the top of the Diana PE part was used and different dimensions for the bracket supporter.  This was all rather fiddly and took rather longer than I'd care to admit... 🙂
 

 

 
Cannons....finally:
Once the channel supporters were in place I could then proceed with installation of the cannons.  These are now glued in place (using CA), I didn't pin these in place as this would have been a little problematic at this stage, and they seem quite secure as is.  Breeching ropes were attached off the ship prior to installation.  Another self imposed delay was decision to go with 'light brown' Syren line rather than the 'tan' used previously - this seems to have a tone that blends better with the colour palette.  The Syren line is very nice to work with and the usual trick of using dilute PVA was used to fine tune the final profile.  For these more obscured cannons, I used a simple eyebolt to secure the breach rope, for the more visible ones in the waist, I want to explore using ringbolt as per practice, but even using a simple eyebolt gives a satisfactory result to my eye at this scale.
 

 
And finally, the exterior shot...in retrospect I'm happy with the decision to install the channels and brackets first as I'm pretty sure there would have been collateral damage to cannons during installation.  5 down, 23 to go.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of those in the US!  Unfortunately the  shipyard has had to suddenly close due to a minor, but messy, health and safety violation involving a clumsy thumb and Xacto knife - nothing serious but plasters/band-aids preventing fine work.
 
Good opportunity to sit back and ponder gun rigging as I'll need to order additional materials from Syren.  Think I'm done with additional detailing on the cannons in the interests of sanity;
Monograms are from Syren, given a quick dash of 'dark iron' Cpaint and glued into place with CA Cap-square eyebolt made with wire and the cap square joint bolt is one of the smaller PE ring bolts.  
 
First mock up of potential rigging, as previously discussed, the breech rope is 0.88mm Syren line.  This line does make the half hitch a little more cumbersome, but think it can still work, even though they will be somewhat hidden even for most visible guns in the waist.  Going to live without the wheel lynch pin and cap square pin/chain.
 
Cannon rigging:
Breeching rope does require some dilute PVA to hold into position on the button.  Wanted to give the hauling tackle a feeling of 'weight', and have been experimenting assembling these off the model using a serving machine to get consistent spacing and also do the frapping.  Procedure still to be finalised…
 
Details as follows:
Block are 1/8" (3.18mm) single/double blocks from Syren Blocks are stropped with 0.012"(0.3mm) line Port tackle line is 0.008" (0.2mm) line Hooks are 4mm from Syren (these are black plastic which I ordered some time ago and don't think Chuck still offers them which is a shame as they seem easy to work with)

Happy New year to everyone!  First off my apologies for not being on the site as much as usual and checking in on everyone's progress, something I hope to rectify soon. 
 
My progress has been limited, some small steps have been taken, and problems encountered that stopped me in my tracks for a while.
 
Channel Brackets:
The kit supplies PE channel support brackets, unfortunately I found this unworkable as is as the profile impinged on the decorative molding, they're also a little wider than indicated on the plan.  The PE parts are scored pretty heavily at the bending points so trying to tweak these was not really an option.  The problem also identified by others is that there are not enough provided in the kit (per the AOTS there are 3 shown on the mizzen, 6 for main and 4 for the fore channel) and only 11 provided, so the kit is 2 short.  Further analysis suggests its likely 3 short as there are 2 brackets used between ports, and it appears that one is simply hidden behind the stock of the anchor on page 69.  I'm going to reflect 5 brackets on the fore channel.  Another slight complication is that the mizzen brackets need to be smaller to account for the lower position of the channel in the open rail configuration I'm following.  Basically I needed to make my own, and without any really good photos to follow went with my gut.
 

 
Not having any other suitable materials handy, my eye turned to one of the spare sets of PE from other CC kits I had purchased a while back.  Not sure which kit, but a little filing and cutting to length allowed the chains to be workable.  These also appear to be almost exactly the same narrower width as shown in the AOTS profiles.  The center portion of the Diana PE part was re-purposed to attach to the channel.  Exactly the same approach was taken for the mizzen, except that the top of the Diana PE part was used and different dimensions for the bracket supporter.  This was all rather fiddly and took rather longer than I'd care to admit... 🙂
 

 

 
Cannons....finally:
Once the channel supporters were in place I could then proceed with installation of the cannons.  These are now glued in place (using CA), I didn't pin these in place as this would have been a little problematic at this stage, and they seem quite secure as is.  Breeching ropes were attached off the ship prior to installation.  Another self imposed delay was decision to go with 'light brown' Syren line rather than the 'tan' used previously - this seems to have a tone that blends better with the colour palette.  The Syren line is very nice to work with and the usual trick of using dilute PVA was used to fine tune the final profile.  For these more obscured cannons, I used a simple eyebolt to secure the breach rope, for the more visible ones in the waist, I want to explore using ringbolt as per practice, but even using a simple eyebolt gives a satisfactory result to my eye at this scale.
 

 
And finally, the exterior shot...in retrospect I'm happy with the decision to install the channels and brackets first as I'm pretty sure there would have been collateral damage to cannons during installation.  5 down, 23 to go.

Happy New year to everyone!  First off my apologies for not being on the site as much as usual and checking in on everyone's progress, something I hope to rectify soon. 
 
My progress has been limited, some small steps have been taken, and problems encountered that stopped me in my tracks for a while.
 
Channel Brackets:
The kit supplies PE channel support brackets, unfortunately I found this unworkable as is as the profile impinged on the decorative molding, they're also a little wider than indicated on the plan.  The PE parts are scored pretty heavily at the bending points so trying to tweak these was not really an option.  The problem also identified by others is that there are not enough provided in the kit (per the AOTS there are 3 shown on the mizzen, 6 for main and 4 for the fore channel) and only 11 provided, so the kit is 2 short.  Further analysis suggests its likely 3 short as there are 2 brackets used between ports, and it appears that one is simply hidden behind the stock of the anchor on page 69.  I'm going to reflect 5 brackets on the fore channel.  Another slight complication is that the mizzen brackets need to be smaller to account for the lower position of the channel in the open rail configuration I'm following.  Basically I needed to make my own, and without any really good photos to follow went with my gut.
 

 
Not having any other suitable materials handy, my eye turned to one of the spare sets of PE from other CC kits I had purchased a while back.  Not sure which kit, but a little filing and cutting to length allowed the chains to be workable.  These also appear to be almost exactly the same narrower width as shown in the AOTS profiles.  The center portion of the Diana PE part was re-purposed to attach to the channel.  Exactly the same approach was taken for the mizzen, except that the top of the Diana PE part was used and different dimensions for the bracket supporter.  This was all rather fiddly and took rather longer than I'd care to admit... 🙂
 

 

 
Cannons....finally:
Once the channel supporters were in place I could then proceed with installation of the cannons.  These are now glued in place (using CA), I didn't pin these in place as this would have been a little problematic at this stage, and they seem quite secure as is.  Breeching ropes were attached off the ship prior to installation.  Another self imposed delay was decision to go with 'light brown' Syren line rather than the 'tan' used previously - this seems to have a tone that blends better with the colour palette.  The Syren line is very nice to work with and the usual trick of using dilute PVA was used to fine tune the final profile.  For these more obscured cannons, I used a simple eyebolt to secure the breach rope, for the more visible ones in the waist, I want to explore using ringbolt as per practice, but even using a simple eyebolt gives a satisfactory result to my eye at this scale.
 

 
And finally, the exterior shot...in retrospect I'm happy with the decision to install the channels and brackets first as I'm pretty sure there would have been collateral damage to cannons during installation.  5 down, 23 to go.